Every chocolate, coffee, chai and tea latte we make has an iced version built to work cold, and behind the bar sits a fridge of bottles and cans for people who do not want a barista drink at all. If you are after cold drinks in central Christchurch with a few other people in tow, that spread is the point: nobody has to settle for whatever everyone else is having.
The iced side of the bar
Iced chocolate is from $5 and built on dark Belgian chocolate, with the same two finishes as the hot version. New York style puts a toasted marshmallow rim on the glass, so every mouthful comes past something soft and slightly burnt. Paris style keeps the whipped cream on the side, so you add richness at your own pace.
Iced coffee is pulled on the C4 Coffee Co Terra Nova Fair Trade Organic blend. It is the same beans as the hot cups, which is why it still tastes of coffee once the ice has done its work.
Iced chai is made from real tea leaves and organic spices with no artificial syrups or premixed powders, and a touch of natural citric acid for balance. The iced Zealong tea latte comes in three: Jade, which is green and grassy; Velvet, which is roasted and rounder; and Noir, which is black tea and the driest of the three. Zealong is the only tea plantation in New Zealand, and the powder is certified organic with no sweeteners, additives or preservatives.
Most of these can be made with a dairy-free milk, a standing everyday option rather than something to arrange in advance. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing we make is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
The affogato, which is really a dessert
The affogato is espresso poured over vanilla bean ice cream. Stir it twice and it stops being a drink. It is the shortest thing on the list, and more of an ending than a beginning.
From the fridge
The chilled cabinet by the counter, listed as From the Fridge, covers everyone the bar does not. Coca-Cola Classic and Coke Zero Sugar are both in it.
The sodas come from Sidekick Soda in Wanaka, in four flavours: cherry, mango, strawberry and pear. The cherry one shows how they are put together: Central Otago cherries for sweetness, a splash of organic Nelson apple cider vinegar for a clean tang, Southland honey to finish, and under four grams of sugar per hundred millilitres.
The juices come from Benjer. The apple juice is pressed from Cox's Orange apples and never made from concentrate, so it reads crisp rather than floury. Apricot and nectarine come on their own, and apple is blended with mango, raspberry, boysenberry or feijoa. No added sugar and no preservatives in any of them.
Order across the list, not down it
One cold drink each is fine. Two people ordering from opposite ends of the list and swapping glasses halfway is better, and it costs exactly the same. An iced chocolate next to an iced Zealong Noir is a real comparison — one is rich, the other dry and tannic — and you leave with an opinion instead of a guess. With four of you, take a soda, a juice, an iced coffee and an affogato and the whole cold range is on the table.
If you want something thicker and closer to a dessert in a glass, the four thickshakes are covered properly in our piece on the chocolate milkshakes and thickshakes.
To share one thing rather than compare four, the signature chocolate fondue — warm Belgian chocolate with house-toasted marshmallow, a mini croissant, cookies, brownie bites and fresh fruit — is built for more than one person from the start.
Visiting and ordering
Every drink here is a walk-in: no notice, nothing to book. Made-to-order desserts take about ten minutes on the day, and anything ordered online for collection needs two days, with the checkout date picker showing only the dates the kitchen can meet. Everything is collected in person from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street, since we do not deliver.
Tables move to seat four to eight, the kitchen is open so you can watch the work, and the room is dog friendly, with a water bowl and metal table legs to clip a lead to. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday. There is more on the beans in our piece on coffee and cake in central Christchurch, and more on the leaves in our piece on Zealong tea.
